Users frequently listen to broadcast and/or pre-recorded music, inspirational speeches, news broadcasts, and the like while performing other tasks. For instance, many people listen to radio music while driving. Frequently, such users may desire to record what they are hearing for later listening, such as when they can devote their entire attention to listening, or just to compile a collection of favorite works. However, such users are typically frustrated in their recording efforts because they do not realize that they want to record the currently playing audio work until after the audio work has already started. For instance, a user may only decide to record a song after several seconds, or even minutes, of play. If recording begins at that time, the recording will be missing the initial portion of the song, even if the recording process is instantaneous after the decision to record is made. Thus, the user will be unable to listen to the entire audio work at a later time. Of course, it is theoretically possible to record the entire audio work with present technology, but only if the user knows when the work is going to be played and can plan ahead enough to begin recording before the work starts playing. In the real world, this is impractical.
Thus, there is a need for method of recording audio works that allows the user to record an audio work from the beginning of the work even when the decision to record is made after some initial portion of the audio work has already been played.